How To Appreciate The Good Things In Life

To enjoy life, you must first learn to appreciate the little things

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Life is unpredictable, sometimes, when you have big plans for the weekend, somehow, the heavens may not always agree, and the sky begins to pour the moment you step out. A disappointment, or is it? It all depends on how one handles negative situations in life.

While waiting for the weather to clear, I tuck into my couch with a cup of hot coffee while my wife made me some Italian pastry (see picture above). Rather than indulging in complaining about the weather, I found myself spending time enjoying every bit of my wife’s bakery skill and the Italian savoury.

Love life like an Italian
Panettone is an Italian pastry instantly recognizable for its tall, domed-shaped top. It is a popular snack for Christmas not just in Italy but everywhere in the world. Panettone is more a bread than it is a cake, filled with rum-soak dried fruit, citrus and almonds.

Learn to appreciate the little things
I am not a baker myself, and I was not at first familiar with panettone, but as I am learning to appreciate the little things in life, I took the effort to do a google search on panettone and found some interesting stories behind its origin. There were several versions floating on the internet, but the one I liked most speaks about a tale, that of Toni, a scullery cook in the Duke of Milan’s court. When Toni’s boss burned the cake intended for Il Duce’s holiday feast, Toni took the sourdough starter he was saving for his own Christmas dinner, kneaded it into a rich confection, and saved the day. The Duke later named the bread, pane di Toni (Tony’s bread), which eventually became panettone.

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While panettone originated as a Christmas delight, it is now common to eat it all year round. I like to eat panettone in the morning as it is a great companion with my coffee, but it is perfectly alright to have it with afternoon tea too.

There are many ways to enjoy a panettone. I loved mine coated with sugar which goes exceptionally well with my Nespresso lungo. The bite into the bread is soft, and the rum-soak dried fruit immediately lets off its pleasant sense of sweetness, giving deep satisfaction to every taste buds. The perfect combination of the enriching sense of panettone blended with the rich aromatic fragrance of grounded coffee brought back fond memories of my time in Italy, eating breakfast and sipping coffee while watching the time go by. An amazing experience! An alternative way of indulging in happy little things rather than dwelling on complaints about life and the foul weather.

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